Iraq has 835 people on death row waiting to be hanged

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.khaleejtimes.ae/DisplayArticle08.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2010/December/middleeast_December205.xml§ion=middleeast

(AFP)

13 December 2010, BAGHDAD - Iraq has 835 people waiting to be executed, Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said Monday, just days after the UN envoy to Baghdad called on the country to abolish capital punishment.

Speaking at a news conference about anti-terrorism measures, Bolani said Iraqi courts had convicted 14,500 people for such offences, with an unspecified number serving life sentences in addition to those due to be executed.

“The government is keen on providing justice,” he said, noting “14,500 criminals have been convicted, with 835 receiving death sentences and others life imprisonment.”

Iraq executed 230 people from 2005 to 2009, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in July, adding that, at the time, 1,254 death sentences had been handed down.

[sharp_stick]

1. When your country has been "freed"

by the likes of George W. Bush you may as well take on his views of a criminal justice system huh?

I'm amazed at how much the enforcement of the death penalty has "helped" in reducing crime in what is now the paradise of Dallas/Fort Worth, and Baghdad. Aren't you? :sarcasm:

[RC]

2. It all depends on who is deciding what constitutes a crime.

And how serous that crime is.